Additional Activities
Committee on a Roadmap for Science
Israeli science faces change on several fronts, including developments in science and technology, global trends in higher education and research, and other distinct challenges facing Israel's research community. Now more than ever, these challenges call for a broad look at what lies ahead and at the steps needed to keep Israel at the forefront of world science. In light of this, the Academy has launched an effort to shape a “roadmap” for Israeli science, one that will identify strategic goals and principles for advancing these objectives.
The committee began its work in January 2026. Following an appeal to the Academy by the Planning and Budgeting Committee (VATAT), the committee began its work by discussing the possible establishment of a fund for applied science. The Academy published its position paper on this subject in April 2026. Click here for the position paper (Hebrew)
Committee Members: Prof. David Harel and Prof. Barak Medina (Co-Chairs), Prof. Hagit Attiya, Prof. Faisal Azaiza, Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten, Prof. Ashraf Brik, Prof. Aaron Ciechanover, Prof. Avner de-Shalit, Prof. Michal Feldman, Prof. Moshe Halbertal, Prof. Beena Kalisky, Prof. Adi Kimchi, Prof. Peretz Lavie, Prof. Liad Mudrik, Mr. Orni Petruschka, Prof. Galia Sabar, Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg, Prof. Daniel Zajfman, Ms. Leron Dean – Academic Coordinator.
Expert Committee on the Future of Police and Policing in Israel: What Can We Learn from the Research
The Israel Police leads in addressing several national challenges, ranging from countering terrorist threats and handling internal conflicts to rising crime rates—particularly within Arab society—and low levels of public trust. Recently, against the backdrop of wartime challenges and political and other developments, questions about police operations have intensified, underscoring the need to outline a future vision for Israeli policework.
In August 2025, the Academy established a committee to determine how research perspectives can contribute to meeting the diverse challenges that the police will face. The committee is expected to operate for approximately two years. It will begin by defining and prioritizing the issues that, in its view, require attention. The expert committee is multidisciplinary, comprising researchers from the fields of criminology, law, sociology, public policy, and social work, as well as retired high-ranking police officers. The committee will draw upon the experience and expertise of its members, conduct literature reviews in order to collect knowledge and data about best practices, and it will conduct intensive learning sessions with external researchers and experts, including international figures.
Committee Members: Prof. David Weisburd and Prof. Badi Hasisi (Co-Chairs), Prof. Guy Ben-Porat, Prof. Yuval Feldman, Deputy Commissioner (Ret.) Yigal Haddad, Prof. Tal Jonathan-Zamir, Prof. Mona Khoury, Commander (Ret.) Lilach Laufman, Dr. Yael Litmanovitz, Prof. Barak Medina, Prof. Avital Mentovich, Prof. Gustavo Mesch, Prof. Fany Yuval. Dr. Tali Friedman – Academic Coordinator.
Committee on the Assessment of Academic Excellence
Recent years have witnessed growing criticism of the use of empirical metrics as the primary criterion for evaluating academic excellence, given the biases and distortions associated with those metrics. In Israel and around the world, alternative approaches are being developing. Hence, in August 2025 the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities established a committee, composed of leading researchers—including members of the National Academy, members of the Israel Young Academy, and other scholars—with plans to operate for one year.
The committee will examine the criteria, metrics, and tools used to evaluate academic excellence in Israel. It will account for differences in various disciplines and in diverse career stages, and it will address the balance between quantitative and qualitative measures. It will also compare its own conclusion with those of various international models.
Ultimately, the committee will present to decision makers and the academic community a document summarizing recommendations for better evaluating academic excellence in Israel.
Committee Members: Prof. Hagit Messer-Yaron and Prof. Sarah Stroumsa (Co-Chairs), Prof. Rosa Azhari, Prof. Izhak Berkovich, Prof. Ashraf Brik, Prof. Cyrille Cohen, Prof. David Enoch, Prof. Oded Goldreich, Prof. Nira Liberman. Elad Cohen – Academic Coordinator
Expert Committee on Student Retention in Honors Tracks in STEM Fields
The Committee on Student Retention in Honors Tracks in STEM Fields examines the psychological factors—emotional, social, and cognitive—that influence retention and success rates among male and female students enrolled in advanced STEM tracks in secondary schools. The committee is chaired by Prof. Avishai Henik and comprises expert researchers in a variety of relevant fields, including education, psychology, and sociology. The committee was established following an appeal by the Trump Foundation, which promotes excellence in mathematics and sciences.
The committee relies on the expertise, knowledge, and experience of its members, while also learning from current research and practices in Israel and worldwide. The committee hosted learning meetings as well as a symposium open to the general public. Upon completion of its work, the committee will present a document addressing future research and potential policy in this area.
Committee Members: Prof. Avishai Henik (Chair), Prof. Sarab Abu-Rabia-Queder, Prof. Rachel Gali Cinamon, Prof. David Fortus, Prof. Orly Rubinsten, Prof. Ruti Segal. Dr. Nirit Topol – Academic Coordinator
Steering Committee for Mapping Climate Risks
The projected risks due to climate change will impact living conditions and ecosystems in Israel, and will have significant influence on national infrastructures, health systems, welfare bodies, and food systems. The Ministry of Environmental Protection assists decision-makers in local and national governmental bodies to prepare for these risks by making data and information accessible. The Ministry is establishing an online portal that includes a detailed map of climate risk vulnerabilities, which will serve as a tool for planning effective policies. In response to a request from the former Chief Scientist, Prof. Noga Kronfeld-Schor, who initiated the creation of the portal, the Academy launched a dialogue and consultative process to advise and support the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s mapping project. To this end, the Academy established a steering committee, chaired by Prof. Eran Feitelson of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, consisting of leading researchers from a variety of relevant fields: climate, ecology, health and society, infrastructure, urban planning, and economics.
The committee focuses on identifying and mapping the indicators of vulnerability to climate risks. There are three major measures of vulnerability: exposure to risk, sensitivity to risk, and preparedness measures. To support this work, the steering committee members conduct meetings of broad forums and narrow, targeted consultations with other relevant experts, including professionals from government bodies and local authorities, and representatives of practitioner organizations. The Ministry of Environmental Protection uses this information in its work, and the experts provide counsel and feedback on the vulnerability maps.
Committee Members: Prof. Eran Feitelson (Committee Chair), Prof. Tamar Dayan, Prof. Eran Friedler, Prof. Noga Kronfeld-Schor, Prof. Doron Lavi, Prof. Maya Negev, Prof. David Pearlmutter, Prof. Alon Tal, Prof. Dan Yakir. Sagit Porat – Academic Coordinator.
The Steering Committee honors the memory of the late Prof. Naomi Carmon for her significant contribution as an active member of the committee prior to her passing.
Expert Committee on Computational Thinking
The Academy established an expert committee chaired by Prof. Michal Armoni of the Weizmann Institute of Science on the topic of "Computational Thinking and Artificial Intelligence Studies in Secondary Schools." The committee was formed following an appeal by the Trump Foundation, which promotes excellence in mathematics education in Israel, and subsequent to the inclusion of "computational thinking" skills in the 2021 PISA study.
The committee’s learning and deliberation process included working sessions and a symposium attended by researchers from various disciplines, staff from the Ministry of Education and other organizations, and teacher-training professionals. The sessions addressed conceptual and practical questions, including: defining the concept of "computational thinking," the presence of computation thinking in curricula in Israel and other countries, and tools for training future artificial-intelligence developers. The committee aimed to formulate practical insights and recommendations regarding the integration of these subjects into the curriculum, with an emphasis on honors classes in middle schools and advanced tracks in high schools.
The final report was published in April, and it included recommendations for including education toward computational thinking from an early age—both as an independent subject and as an integral part of other disciplines—while balancing the study of programming languages with the development of thinking skills. The report also emphasized the need for appropriate teacher training, and it included preliminary insights on how the AI developers of the future should be trained. It proposed a pedagogic approach that involves working with data alongside investment in the development of intellectual skills aptitude for analytical thinking, computational skills, creativity, and collaboration. The report also highlighted the need to promote gender balance in these disciplines starting from an early age.
Committee Members: Prof. Michal Armoni (Chair), Dr. David Ginat, Prof. Raz Kupferman, Prof. Oren Kurland, Prof. Tali Nachlieli, Prof. Shimon Schocken, Prof. Amiram Yehudai. Chen Berkman – Academic Coordinator.
Deliberative Process for Identifying Benchmarks for Unregulated Early-Childhood Settings
In 2022, Israel initiated structural reforms in early-childhood education. The reforms transferred to the Ministry of Education the pedagogic and professional responsibility for daycare centers focused on toddlers up to age three and which include seven or more children. In practice, many of these toddlers are educated in unregulated settings. At the request of Yad Hanadiv, a brief deliberative process was conducted this year to define measures and standards for these frameworks. Two background papers were written, reviewing frameworks, indicators, and tools for assessing the quality of early-childhood settings in Israel and worldwide, as well as the relevance of these indicators and tools to the unique conditions of unregulated institutions. The background papers reflected literature reviews and specific knowledge acquired from researchers and practitioners in the field of early-childhood care and education. Subsequent meetings –attended by researchers, officials from public bodies and civil organizations, and representatives from local governments – created opportunities for further dialogue and discussion. Afterwards, the findings were compiled into a brief insights document, which identified key benchmarks for evaluating the quality of education and care in early childhood settings, emphasizing the necessity of applying them to unregulated frameworks. These unregulated frameworks require minimal quality standards along with professional guidance and support, all while maintaining flexibility to adapt the tools and guidance to a given local and cultural context.
Dr. Tali Friedman – Academic Coordinator.
Formulation of a "Skills Codex" – Processing and Accessibility of Research-Based Knowledge
At the request of the Ministry of Education, the Academy worked to formulate an online compendium to expand and enrich the infrastructure of knowledge available to policymakers and educational teams regarding the cognitive, emotional, and social skills that the education system seeks to impart to students. This work continued a 2020-2021 initiative by the Ministry of Education, which determined that the purpose of learning is to nurture a learner possessing the knowledge, skills, and values that will enable them to develop as an educated individual, to fulfill their potential, and to contribute to society. Following that, at the request and under the guidance of the Office of the Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Education, this initiative attempts to locate vital research-knowledge related to each skill. In addition, it attempts to map the knowledge and identify the primary practical implications arising from that knowledge. Each skill was identified and defined through consultation with researchers from the relevant fields of knowledge, who offered advice on which capabilities linked to each skill and on which research sources to utilize. The summary documents make accessible the knowledge in these sources and review the primary insights and practical implications that emerged from this deliberative process.
You can view above 130 summaries related to thirteen skills on the website of the Chief Scientist: https://bit.ly/4eGtePF.
An interactive map of the documents appears here: https://bit.ly/4vu0Gjz